Playing Legacy at SCGCON
This is the final part of my 4 part series about SCG Con. If you missed the first 3 you can find them here, here, and here.
SCG Con has come and gone. It was a great event, with awesome events going on all weekend. I would be very happy if this type of event becomes an annual endeavor because it really felt like a great celebration for a great year of Magic.
However, I went to this even with a single goal in mind: Qualify for the 10k Cube tournament. The first time I heard about it I knew I had to try for it. I have spent the past month or so testing and practicing a ton of different decks. I wanted to give myself the best chance I could to make it in, and I felt like my preparation was appropriate.
My deck of choice was Grixis Control. The event was a smaller than expected 43 player tournament. 6 rounds, cut to top 8, 1st and 2nd place both qualify. I felt nervous, but ready and I was in the zone.
Here is my relatively stock list, for reference:
Round 1 - Death and Taxes (Win 2-0)
I quite like the way Grixis Control lines up against Death and Taxes. The cheap, diverse removal, in conjunction with Kolaghan’s Command and Liliana is often too much for them to handle.
In my experience I have found there are 2 common ways that I have had trouble in the matchup:
- Death and Taxes successfully chokes out my mana, preventing me from effectively disrupting them.
- Mirran Crusader
Fortunately this round I was able to Force of Will the Mirran Crusader and develop my mana base without much interference. Liliana, the Last Hope is an absurd card against them (and by far my MVP of the weekend) and in both games I was able to use Liliana to survive the early game and take over the end game.
Both games ended with a Liliana Ultimate.
Sideboard:
-2 Force of Will, -1 Hymn to Tourach, +1 Marsh Casualties, +1 Dreadbore, +1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Round 2 - Esper Stoneblade (Win 2-0)
My opponent did a good job tricking me in the early turns. I was certain this was Miracles until I got Thoughtseized. I used Brainstorm to protect a Jace and a Thoughtseize back from me allowed my to resolve a Jace through a Force of Will and that was enough to take over game 1.
Game 2 was far more difficult. My opponent set up a situation where they could protect their Jace from Lightning Bolt and Kolaghan’s Command with Flusterstorm and Spell Pierce and was able to keep it on the battlefield for 6 or 7 turns. On top of that, Stoneforge Mystic paired with Sword of Fire and Ice to start really taking over the board. It was a really bad situation.
However, my opponent’s Brainstorms weren’t yielding hard-counters, and I was able to chain Liliana into Snapcaster + Toxic Deluge into Pyroblast, and start getting something going. Eventually, I was the one with the Jace and Liliana, and I won the game. He drew a lot of Swords to Plowshares and Spell Pierces and that couldn’t keep up with my mana development. I felt really good about this game, as it seemed pretty hopeless, but I kept considering what would have to go right for me to win and played to that end.
This is one of the reasons that the best Legacy control decks play red. While he had Jace for 7 turns, I knew I could always draw Pyroblast to break out of it. And while he kept pulling way ahead on card advantage and board presence, my cards all ended up generating some kind of 2 for 1 advantage, which let me keep playing lands. As I mentioned last week, the way this deck uses all of its mana in the late game is a huge draw to me liking this deck.
Sideboard:
-2 Fatal Push, -1 Lightning Bolt, -4 Force of Will, -2 Diabolic Edict, +3 Pyroblast, +1 Hymn to Tourach, +1 Thoughtseize, +1 Liliana, the Last Hope, +1 Dreadbore, +1 Nihil Spellbomb, +1 Mash Casualties
Round 3 - 4 Color Loam (Loss 1-2)
Technically a lot happened in this match, but none of it was that interesting. Game 1 I was able to resolve Jace through a Life from the Loam + Wasteland and that ended up being enough.
Game 2, I drew a lot of removal spells and lands while my opponent was dredging Loam, and resolved Liliana of the Veil and Ajani Vengeant. I was trying to race to a Liliana Ultimate myself, but I couldn’t quite draw well enough to get out of it.
Game 3 I was promptly Wastelanded 2 times and never found another land. I’ve been around the block before, no big deal over here.
Sideboard:
-1 Force of Will, -1 Fatal Push, -1 Lightning Bolt, -2 Hymn to Tourach, -1 Toxic Deluge, +2 Nihil Spellbomb, +1 Surgical Extraction, +1 Blood Moon, +1 Liliana, the Last Hope, +1 Dreadbore
Round 4 - Goblins (Win 2-0)
This match was relatively uneventful. I Forced my opponent’s Aether Vial and they never played another spell in the first game. In the second game they developed reasonably well, but never really put that much pressure on my mana. I was able to use Kolaghan’s Commands, Gurmag Angler, and Liliana to take over the game.
This matchup is likely very similar to Death and Taxes, and their best route to victory is likely aggressively attacking my mana base.
Sideboard:
-2 Force of Will, -2 Hymn to Tourach, +1 Marsh Casualties, +1 Dreadbore, +1 Liliana, the Last Hope, +1 Thoughtseize
Round 5 - Grixis Control (Win 2-1)
At GP Richmond, Reid Duke described that this matchup is, “as gritty as it gets.” He is not wrong, and this is one of the grindiest matchups I tested against. It can be both swingy, with powerful top decks ending the game and come down to who has the last Kolaghan’s Command or Snapcaster Mage.
Liliana is huge in the matchup, as it is difficult to kill, threatens to win the game by itself, and brings back the best cards in the matchup from the graveyard. As such, I value this card really highly in the matchup, and will always try to protect it from discard spells over just about anything else.
In game 1 my opponent was able to grind me down with Kolaghan’s Commands and Snapcaster Mages. They made a misstep when they had 3 or 4 cards in hand and I just had Jace that they knew about in hand by casting Snapcaster Mage into Inquisition of Kozilek instead of Hymn to Tourach. That was the first of many Jaces to come and as it turns out I would need all 3 of them to finally pull ahead and lock up the game.
Game 2 was an intense grindfest, with me almost ultimating a Liliana, and then getting ground down by Kolaghan’s Commands, Snapcasters, and Hymn to Tourachs. This game took about 25-30 minutes, and by the time I lost we only had about 10 minutes left on the clock.
I turned on the speed Magic for game 3, drawing a Liliana in my opening hand, protecting it from a Thoughtseize with Brainstorm, and riding it to the ultimate. I haven’t played that fast in a long time, but I pretty much just played intuitively because I honestly didn’t have enough time to think through my decisions perfectly. This was a crazy match and I was really happy I was able to come away with the win at the end.
My opponent was incredibly nice, and got his revenge on my later in the weekend by beating me in the finals of an Ultimate Masters draft.
Sideboard:
-4 Force of Will, -2 Gurmag Angler, -2 Fatal Push, -2 Diabolic Edict, -1 Lightning Bolt, +3 Pyroblast, +2 Nihil Spellbomb, +1 Hymn to Tourach, +1 Thoughtseize, +1 Liliana, the Last Hope, +1 Dreadbore, +2 Flusterstorm
Round 6 - Mono Red Prison (ID)
With that, I made it to the top 8. There was a slight scare because somebody had an unintentional draw in the swiss, but I was able to pretty cleanly make it in as the 8th seed. With step 1 completed, now I just needed to make it through the elimination rounds.
Quarterfinals - Eldrazi Post
I didn’t know what my opponent was playing, but once he started on Cloudpost I knew I was in for a bad time. This matchup is horrible, and I have to get pretty lucky to steal the match.
Spoiler alert: I wasn’t so fortunate.
The problem with this matchup is that I can’t punish any of their strategies. I can’t attack their manabase, it’s difficult to efficiently kill their creatures, and they have a relatively wide range of annoying lock pieces that trip me up. On top of this, the worst part is that Eye of Ugin/Ulamog are just about impossible to beat.
While I was able to make game 1 look like a game with Jace and Kolaghan’s Command, Eye of Ugin obliterated me while I was busy bouncing and Force of Willing Endbringers and Matter Reshapers
Game 2 I had a turn 3 Blood Moon, but my only 2 basics were Islands and my Jace was locked down with a Sorcerous Spyglass. Eventually, I was just beat to death by Thought-Knot Seer and Matter Reshaper cast off of Grim Monolith.
The End of the Tale
Just like that, I was crushed out of the top 8. I had failed at meeting my goal, and that was pretty disappointing.
However, it was still a great event and a great weekend. I felt like I played very well and was very much in the zone all event. In addition, I was happy with my preparation going in and the conclusions I came to overall.
The one thing I am certain I would change is my current sideboard plan against Eldrazi Post. Actually, even one step further, my sideboard plan against all of the land-based decks was quite lacking. Blood Moon doesn’t cut it. It hurts me, and most decks are actually well prepared for it. I don’t know exactly what I should be looking to do, but one direction i’m looking at is Liliana of the Veil. It doesn’t directly stop these decks like Blood Moon does, but it is a tough to remove Planeswalker that actually favorably interacts with both Eldrazi and 4-Color Loam.
Other than that, I am actually interested in going harder on the Liliana tribal aspect and trying to get a 3rd Last Hope in my deck. I know that is overkill, but wow it overperformed in just about every game. I basically always wanted it, and drawing multiple copies can still generate a lot of card advantage. This card was definitely the MVP of the weekend and I want to keep pushing it in my deck building going forward.
I hope through this series I could impart a bit of Legacy insight onto you all, and I hope you enjoyed joining me as I prepared for this event. It was a lot of fun to write about, and even more fun to test so many decks in depth.
Until next time!
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